World

TOKYO — Mourners lined the streets of central Tokyo on Tuesday to bid farewell to assassinated former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, as his hearse was driven past political landmarks after a private funeral.

The country's longest-serving prime minister was gunned down on Friday while campaigning, in a crime that rattled Japan and prompted an outpouring of international condemnation and grief.

His funeral was held at Tokyo's Zojoji Temple on Tuesday, with relatives and close acquaintances in attendance.

But elsewhere in the temple compound, thousands of well-wishers lined up in the humid heat to pay their respects before a photo of the late leader, who held office until 2020.

"I can't get over my sadness, so I came here to lay flowers," consultant Tsukasa Yokawa, 41, told AFP, describing Abe as "a great prime minister who did a lot to elevate Japan's presence" globally.

After the service, a hearse carrying Abe's body departed for a final tour of some of the political landmarks he served in: the parliament, the prime minister's office and the headquarters of his ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

Residents gathered along the route, while staff and officials, including ministers and senior LDP figures, stood sombrely outside each venue. They pressed their hands together and bowed their heads in respect as the car arrived.

Abe's widow Akie sat in the front of the hearse — carrying her husband's mortuary tablet inscribed with his posthumous Buddhist name — and bowed back.

Defence Minister Nobuo Kishi, Abe's brother, called the murder "an act of terrorism" on Tuesday.

"I've lost my brother. At the same time, Japan has lost an irreplaceable leader," he tweeted. "My brother loved Japan and risked his life to be a politician and protect this nation."

In a speech at the funeral, 81-year-old Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso recalled drinking and playing golf with his close ally.

"You were supposed to read an eulogy for me. This is very painful," he said, according to Japanese media.

Abe was campaigning in the western city of Nara when he was shot.

The murder suspect, 41-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami, is in custody and has told police he targeted Abe because he believed the politician was linked to an organisation he resented.

Yamagami approached him from behind in broad daylight, in circumstances that have raised questions about security.

Satoshi Ninoyu, the chairman of the National Public Safety Commission, a Cabinet position overseeing national police, pledged Tuesday to hold a full review of any security failings.

Local police have already admitted flaws in their guarding programme for the high-profile politician.

Police searches of the suspect’s home have found pellets and other possible components for building a gun like the crude weapon used in the attack, Japanese media reported Tuesday, citing unnamed investigative sources.

Yamagami spent three years in Japan’s navy and reportedly told investigators that his mother’s large donations to a religious organisation had caused the family financial troubles.

The Unification Church, a global religious movement founded in Korea in the 1950s, said on Monday that Yamagami’s mother was a member, but did not comment on any donations she may have made.

Condolences pour in 

Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said on Tuesday that more than 1,700 condolence messages had been received from 259 countries, territories and international bodies.

On Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a previously unscheduled stop in Tokyo to pay tribute to Abe, describing him as a “man of vision”.

And Taiwanese Vice President William Lai was also in Tokyo for a surprise trip, Taiwanese media said.

China’s foreign ministry hit out at the visit, accusing Taiwan authorities of using Abe’s death as “an opportunity for political manipulation”.

Hayashi, though, said Lai was travelling in a private capacity and there was no change to Japan’s policy on non-governmental working relations with Taiwan.

Public memorials for Abe, 67, are expected to be held at a later date.

Abe, the scion of a political family, took power for the first time in 2006, and resigned for health reasons in 2020 at the end of his second stint at the helm.

His hawkish, nationalist views were divisive, and he weathered a series of scandals including allegations of cronyism, but he was lauded by others for his economic strategy and efforts to put Japan firmly on the world stage.

COLOMBO — Sri Lanka's president headed to a naval base on Tuesday with a view to fleeing his island by ship following a humiliating standoff at the airport, official sources said.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa has promised to resign on Wednesday and clear the way for a "peaceful transition of power" following widespread protests against him over the country's worst economic crisis.

The 73-year-old leader fled his official residence in Colombo just before tens of thousands of protesters overran it on Saturday. He then wanted to fly to Dubai, officials said.

As president, Rajapaksa enjoys immunity from arrest, and he is believed to want to go abroad before stepping down to avoid the possibility of being detained.

But immigration staff at Bandaranaike International withdrew from VIP services on Monday and insisted that all passengers must go through public counters.

The presidential party were reluctant to go through regular channels fearing public reactions, a security official said, and as a result, missed four flights that could have taken them to the United Arab Emirates.

Attempts to arrange a military flight to a neighbouring country also failed as clearance to land was not immediately available, the official added.

The president and his wife spent the night at a military airbase next to the airport.

A top defence source said the president’s closest military aides were discussing the possibility of taking him and his entourage overseas aboard a naval patrol craft.

“The best option now is to take the sea exit,” the defence official said. “He could go to the Maldives or India and get a flight to Dubai.”

The group left the airbase on Tuesday afternoon in two Bell 412 helicopters, an airport source said, bound for the northeastern port of Trincomalee, site of the naval base where Rajapaksa initially took refuge after fleeing his palace on Saturday.

Another option was to fly from Hingurakgoda air base where the choppers stopped to refuel, an air force source said, adding it had a runway that could accommodate executive jets.

Rajapaksa’s youngest brother Basil, who resigned in April as finance minister, missed his own Emirates flight to Dubai early Tuesday after a tense stand-off with airport staff.

Basil — who holds US citizenship in addition to Sri Lankan nationality — tried to use a paid concierge service for business travellers, but airport and immigration staff said they had withdrawn from the fast track service.

“There were some other passengers who protested against Basil boarding their flight,” an airport official told AFP. “It was a tense situation, so he hurriedly left the airport.

Basil had to obtain a new US passport after leaving his behind at the presidential palace when the Rajapaksas beat a hasty retreat to avoid mobs on Saturday, a diplomatic source said.

Official sources said a suitcase full of documents had also been left behind at the stately mansion along with 17.85 million rupees (about $50,000) in cash, now in the custody of a Colombo court.

There was no official word from the president’s office about his whereabouts, but he remained commander-in-chief of the armed forces with military resources at his disposal.

Rajapaksa is accused of mismanaging the economy to a point where the country has run out of foreign exchange to finance even the most essential imports, leading to severe hardships for the 22 million population.

If he steps down as promised, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will automatically become acting president until parliament elects an MP to serve out the presidential term, which ends in November 2024.

Sri Lanka defaulted on its $51 billion foreign debt in April and is in talks with the IMF for a possible bailout.

GENEVA — Fresh surges of COVID infections show the pandemic is nowhere near over, the World Health Organisation’s(WHO) chief lamented on Tuesday, warning that the virus is running free.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was worried that case numbers were shooting up, putting more strain on health systems and workers.

The number of COVID cases reported to the WHO increased 30 per cent in the past two weeks, driven by sub-variants of the Omicron strain and the lifting of control measures.

“New waves of the virus demonstrate again that COVID-19 is nowhere near over. As the virus pushes at us, we must push back,” he insisted.

He told a news conference that as transmission increases, governments must also deploy tried-and-tested measures like mask-wearing and improving ventilation.

“Sub-variants of Omicron, like BA.4 and BA.5, continue to drive waves of cases, hospitalisation and death around the world,” Tedros said.

“Surveillance has reduced significantly — including testing and sequencing — making it increasingly difficult to assess the impact of variants on transmission, disease characteristics, and the effectiveness of counter-measures.”

Furthermore, tests, treatments and vaccines are not being deployed effectively.

“The virus is running freely and countries are not effectively managing the disease burden based on their capacity,” he said, both in terms of hospitalisation of acute cases and the expanding number of people with Long COVID.

‘Uncertain and unpredictable’

The WHO’s COVID-19 emergency committee met on Friday via video-conference and determined the pandemic remains a Public Health Emergency of International Concern — the highest alarm the WHO can sound.

WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan told the meeting recent changes in testing policies were hindering the detection of cases and the monitoring of virus evolution.

The committee stressed the need to reduce transmission as the implications of a pandemic caused by a new respiratory virus would not be fully understood, the WHO said in a statement on Monday.

The group voiced concern over steep reductions in testing, resulting in reduced surveillance and genomic sequencing.

“This impedes assessments of currently circulating and emerging variants of the virus,” the WHO said, feeding the inability to interpret trends in transmission.

The committee said the trajectory of virus evolution and the characteristics of emerging variants remained “uncertain and unpredictable”.

It said the absence of measures to reduce transmission increasing the likelihood of “new, fitter variants emerging, with different degrees of virulence, transmissibility, and immune escape potential”.

Meanwhile, the WHO’s European office recommended a second booster shot of a COVID vaccine for older people and vulnerable groups.

COVID cases have been rising sharply since the end of May around most of Europe.

The call followed the EU’s health and medicine agencies recommendation on Monday of a second booster shot for people over 60 years old.

Coronavirus cases have risen 57 per cent in Moscow over the past week, the Russian capital’s health authorities said.

“We recommend that you wear a mask in public places because the new Omicron sub-variants BA.4 and BA.5 spread more rapidly from person to person,” Moscow social services wrote on Telegram.

And hundreds of thousands of people were under lockdown in a small Chinese city after just one case of COVID-19 was detected, as Beijing’s strict no-tolerance virus strategy showed no sign of abating.

The steelmaking hub of Wugang in Henan province announced three days of “closed control”.

None of the city’s 320,000 people are allowed outside their homes until midday Thursday. Local authorities were to deliver basic necessities.

China is the last major economy glued to a zero-COVID policy, crushing new outbreaks with snap lockdowns, forced quarantines and onerous travel curbs despite mounting public fatigue and damage to the economy.

BALI, Indonesia — Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Bali on Thursday to discuss Moscow's invasion of Ukraine ahead of a G-20 ministerial meeting overshadowed by the war.

The pair was pictured holding a bilateral meeting on the Indonesian resort island as the world's top economies gather to discuss the most pressing global issues on Friday, with the Ukraine war at the top of the agenda.

Despite criticism, Beijing has upheld friendly ties with Russia as Western nations have sought to isolate President Vladimir Putin's government from the global financial and diplomatic order over the military assault on its neighbour.

Lavrov informed Wang "about the implementation of the main missions of the special military operation" in Ukraine and reiterated Moscow's rhetoric that its aim is to "denazify" the country, a Russian foreign ministry statement said.

"Both parties underlined the unacceptable nature of unilateral sanctions adopted by circumventing the UN."

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will be in attendance and is set to hold bilateral talks with Wang on Saturday.

But he will shun a direct meeting with his Russian counterpart even though they are set for their first showdown since the outbreak of war in February.

Blinken last saw Lavrov in January in Geneva, where the top US diplomat warned Russia of massive consequences if it went ahead and invaded Ukraine, which it did on February 24.

Washington has argued Russia should no longer be a member of the international forum, a position echoed by some Western allies.

But the Russian foreign ministry said Lavrov and Wang stressed "the need for the maintenance and development of the G-20" in their meeting.

Blinken will use the meeting — which is a prelude to a leaders' summit in November — to lobby allies that have been at odds with its position on Ukraine, such as India, to pull away from Moscow.

But China has refused to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine and has been accused of providing diplomatic cover for the Kremlin by blasting Western sanctions and arms sales to Kyiv.

Beijing pursues an independent foreign policy toward Russia and both reject interference from what they have called "third parties".

A meeting between Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping in February ended with the pair declaring a "new era" of international relations with "no limits" to their relationship.

Xi assured Putin of China's support for Russian "sovereignty and security" in a phone call last month.

The United States swiftly weighed in, condemning China for "investing in close ties to Russia" despite claiming to be neutral.

SLOVIANSK, Ukraine — Russian forces left a trail of destruction in their wake on Thursday as they grinded deeper into Donbas with their sights set on the industrial hub of Sloviansk in eastern Ukraine as their next target.

Moscow's slow push came as diplomatic tensions mounted between Ankara and Kyiv, where Ukrainian officials accused Turkey of ignoring calls to seize grain being transported by a Russian ship.

Russian forces killed at least seven civilians and injured others in the last 24 hours throughout the battle-scarred Donetsk region, the region's head Pavlo Kyrylenko said Thursday, in Moscow's latest wave of deadly attacks.

Kramatorsk, Ukraine's de-facto administrative centre in Donetsk was struck by Russia on Thursday, AFP journalists said, killing at least one civilian and injuring several others.

The explosion left a large crater in a courtyard between a hotel and residential buildings and several cars were on the fire.

The fatalities came after Ukrainian officials re-issued urgent pleas for civilians in the war-torn region to flee as Russian forces turn on Sloviansk.

Vitaliy, a Ukrainian plumber, told AFP in the industrial hub that his wife and her daughter from a previous marriage, who is six months pregnant, were evacuated from the city the day before.

"I sent my wife [away], and I have no more choice: tomorrow I will join the army."

The town has been hit repeatedly by Russian bombardments and on Wednesday a marketplace and its surrounding streets were badly damaged in a barrage of rockets.

Despite the threat of intensifying Russian bombardments as Moscow turns its military focus on the city, some residents vowed to stay.

“We have basements, we will hide there,” said 72-year-old greengrocer Galyna Vasyliivna.

“What we can do? We have nowhere to go, nobody needs us.”

Mayor Vadym Lyakh said around 23,000 people remained out of a pre-war population of 110,000 and claimed Russia had been unable to surround the city.

“Evacuation is ongoing. We take people out every day,” he said, explaining that fleeing civilians are being brought by bus to the city of Dnipro, further west.

“The city is well fortified,” he said.

Sloviansk in the Donetsk region is next in Russia’s line of fire after their capture of the nearby sister cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk in the Lugansk region.

The fall of Lysychansk last week after the Ukrainian army also retreated from Severodonetsk has freed up Russian troops, who switched their attention to the Donbas after being beaten back from around the capital Kyiv and Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv early in the invasion.

Otherwise, a diplomatic crisis flared between Ukraine and Turkey over the apparent transport by Russia of grain allegedly stolen from Ukraine.

‘Deeply disappointed’

Kyiv alleges that a 7,000-tonne vessel, the Zhibek Zholy, set off from Ukraine’s Kremlin-occupied port of Berdyansk after picking up confiscated wheat and called last week for Turkey to seize it.

The marinetraffic.com website showed on Thursday the vessel moving away from Turkey’s Black Sea port of Karasu before apparently switching off its transponder and disappearing from view.

Ukraine said it was “deeply disappointed” that Turkey had not acted on its request to seize the ship.

The incident points to Turkey’s complicated role in the war, where President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has a close but tumultuous relationship with Moscow but also supplies combat drones to Ukraine.

Despite Ukraine’s recent territorial losses, President Volodymyr Zelensky in an evening address on Wednesday praised new heavy Western artillery for boosting Ukraine’s firepower.

“The weapons we have received from our partners have started working very powerfully. Their accuracy is exactly as it should be,” he said.

“Our defenders inflict notable blows on warehouses and other points which are important for the logistics of the occupiers,” he said.

The EU meanwhile set out a harder focus on energy given the war with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen warning of the need to “prepare for further disruptions of gas supply, even a complete cut-off from Russia”.

The European Union has launched a 300-billion-euro ($310-billion) plan to wean itself off Russian fossil fuel supplies.

SLOVIANSK, Ukraine — The evacuation of civilians from Sloviansk continued on Wednesday as Russian troops pressed towards the eastern Ukrainian city in their campaign to control the Donbas region, as Ireland's prime minister visited Kyiv to voice solidarity.

Sloviansk has been subjected to heavy bombardment in recent days as Russian forces push westwards on day 133 of the invasion.

"Twenty years of work; everything is lost. No more income, no more wealth," Yevgen Oleksandrovych, 66, told AFP as he surveyed the site of his car parts shop, destroyed in Tuesday's strikes.

AFP journalists saw rockets slam into Sloviansk's marketplace and surrounding streets, with firefighters scrambling to put out the resulting blazes.

Around a third of the market in Sloviansk appeared to have been destroyed, with locals coming to see what was left among the charred wreckage.

The remaining part of the market was functioning, with a trickle of shoppers coming out to buy fruit and vegetables.

Sloviansk 'well fortified' — mayor 

"I will sell it out and that's it, and we will stay home. We have basements, we will hide there. What we can do? We have nowhere to go, nobody needs us," said 72-year-old greengrocer Galyna Vasyliivna.

Mayor Vadym Lyakh said that around 23,000 people out of 110,000 were still in Sloviansk but claimed Russia had been unable to surround the city.

“Since the beginning of hostilities, 17 residents of the community have died, 67 have been injured,” he said.

“Evacuation is ongoing. We take people out every day.” Many of the evacuees were taken by bus to the city of Dnipro, further west.

“The city is well fortified. Russia does not manage to advance to the city,” the mayor said.

Vitaliy, a plumber, said his wife and their daughter, who is six months pregnant, were evacuated from Sloviansk on Wednesday.

“I am afraid for my wife,” he told AFP.

“Here, after what happened yesterday, they hit the city centre; need to leave.

“I sent my wife, and I have no more choice: Tomorrow I will join the army.”

Russians push west 

The eastern Donbas is mainly comprised of the Lugansk region, which Russian forces have almost entirely captured, and the Donetsk region to its southwest — the current focus of Moscow’s attack and the location of Sloviansk.

The fall of Lysychansk in Lugansk on Sunday, a week after the Ukrainian army also retreated from the neighbouring city of Severodonetsk, has freed up Russian troops to advance west on Kramatorsk and Sloviansk — Donetsk’s two largest cities still under Ukrainian control.

On Tuesday, they were first closing in on the smaller city of Siversk — which lies between Lysychansk and Sloviansk — after days of shelling there.

Donetsk governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said Russian forces killed five civilians and injured 21 in the region on Tuesday.

Lugansk Governor Sergiy Gayday insisted that Russia did not control the entire Lugansk region, saying: “Fighting still keeps going in two villages.”

Irish PM sees ‘evil’ 

Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin was in Ukraine on Wednesday to voice Dublin’s solidarity and discuss how Ireland can support the country’s needs.

He visited Borodyanka and Butcha outside Kyiv, two towns that have become symbols of the alleged war crimes committed by Russian soldiers in this conflict.

“In the 21st century, to see such evil — very very difficult to comprehend. This war must stop,” he told Irish broadcaster RTE.

After talks later with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Martin said Moscow’s actions could not be allowed to stand.

“Russia’s brutal war against this beautiful democratic country is a gross violation of international law. It is an affront to everything that Ireland stands for,” he said.

Zelensky said Russia was not yet thinking about peace because “they don’t feel pressure of sanctions for the moment since some allies hesitate to activate sanctions”.

He is pressing Western allies for upgraded anti-missile systems.

“Our priority is sky security. We count on the arrival of powerful air defence systems. It will allow women and kids to get back home,” Zelensky said.

Russia toughens laws 

Ireland supports Ukraine’s push for membership of the European Union.

Two hit and captured Russian armoured vehicles went on display in Warsaw’s historic Castle Square, under the message that Ukrainians are not just defending freedom and democracy in their own country but for Europe as a whole.

The EU on Wednesday set out a harder focus on energy given Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“We need to prepare for further disruptions of gas supply, even a complete cut-off from Russia,” European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen told the European Parliament.

The EU has launched a 300 billion-euro ($310 billion) plan to wean itself off Russian fossil fuel supplies.

Russia’s parliament on Wednesday introduced harsh prison terms for calls to act against national security, and for maintaining “confidential” cooperation with foreigners and helping them to act against Russia’s interests.

Rights activists fear the new legislation will be used to snuff out any last vestiges of dissent.

Lawmakers also approved legislation to create a patriotic youth movement, in a move reminiscent of Soviet-era youth organisations.

Meanwhile former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev invoked the possibility of nuclear war if the International Criminal Court moves to punish Moscow for alleged crimes in Ukraine since the February 24 invasion.

“The idea to punish a country that has the largest nuclear arsenal is absurd,” said Medvedev, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin.

“And potentially creates a threat to the existence of mankind.”

HIGHLAND PARK, United States — A 21-year-old man who allegedly opened fire on a July 4 parade in a Chicago suburb while disguised in women's clothing was charged with seven counts of first-degree murder on Tuesday, prosecutors said.

Robert Crimo, 21, was arrested on Monday, hours after the attack on an Independence Day crowd.

"There will be more charges," Lake County State's Attorney Eric Rinehart told reporters. "We anticipate dozens of more charges centred around each of the victims."

Police spokesman Christopher Covelli said the death toll rose to seven on Tuesday after one of the victims died in hospital. More than 35 people were wounded.

Among the dead were Kevin McCarthy, 37, and his wife, Irina, 35 — the parents of a two-year-old boy who was found wandering alone after the shooting, according to CBS News.

Covelli said no motive had been established for the attack, which sent panicked parade-goers fleeing for their lives.

"We do believe Crimo pre-planned this attack for several weeks," and that he acted alone, he said.

"We have no information to suggest at this point it was racially motivated, motivated by religion or any other protected status," he added.

He said Crimo has a history of mental health issues and threatening behavior.

Police had been called to Crimo's home twice in 2019: once to investigate a suicide attempt and the second time because a relative said he had threatened to "kill everyone" in the family, he said.

Police removed 16 knives, a dagger and a sword from the home but did not make any arrests, he said.

Covelli said Crimo used a fire escape to access the roof of a building overlooking the parade route and fired more than 70 rounds from a rifle "similar to an AR-15" — one of several guns he had purchased legally.

"Crimo was dressed in women's clothing and investigators believe he did this to conceal his facial tattoos and his identity and help him during the escape with the other people who were fleeing the chaos," he said.

Covelli said Crimo went to his mother’s nearby home after the shooting and borrowed her car. He was captured about eight hours later after a brief chase.

He also said the authorities were investigating disturbing online posts and videos made by Crimo.

The shooting has left the upscale suburb in shock.

“We’re all still reeling,” Mayor Nancy Rotering told NBC’s Today show. “Everybody knows somebody who was affected by this directly.”

The mayor said she personally knew the suspected gunman when he was a young boy in the Cub Scouts.

“How did somebody become this angry, this hateful to then take it out on innocent people who literally were just having a family day out?”

Crimo, whose father unsuccessfully ran for mayor and owns a store in Highland Park called Bob’s Pantry and Deli, was an amateur musician billing himself as “Awake the Rapper.”

The younger Crimo’s online postings include violent content that alluded to guns and shootings.

One YouTube video posted eight months ago featured cartoons of a gunman and people being shot.

“I need to just do it,” a voice-over says.

It adds: “It is my destiny. Everything has led up to this. Nothing can stop me, not even myself.”

Crimo, who has the word “Awake” tattooed over an eyebrow, is seen sporting an “FBI” hat in numerous photos and a Trump flag as a cape in one picture.

The shooting is the latest in a wave of gun violence plaguing the United States, where about 40,000 deaths a year are caused by firearms, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

‘Epidemic of gun violence’ 

The deeply divisive debate over gun control was reignited by two massacres in May that saw 10 Black people gunned down at a New York supermarket, and 19 children and two teachers slain at an elementary school in Texas.

Vice President Kamala Harris, who was in Chicago Tuesday for a summit of the nation’s largest teachers’ union, said the Texas shooting was a reminder “of the risks that our children and our educators face every day”, and renewed a call for Congress to ban assault weapons.

Speaking later at the scene of the Highland Park shooting, Harris said: “The whole nation should understand... that this could happen anywhere, in any peace-loving community.”

In another July 4 shooting, two police officers were wounded when they came under fire during a fireworks show in Philadelphia, officials said.

In Highland Park, Emily Prazak, who marched in the parade, described the mayhem.

“We heard the pop, pop, pop, pop, pop and I thought it was fireworks,” Prazak said.

Cassie Goldstein, another survivor of the attack, told local media she had seen her mother die as they fled the shooting.

“I started running with her, we were next to each other, and he shot her in the chest, and she fell down and I knew she was dead,” the 22-year-old told NBC News.

“So I just told her that I loved her, but I couldn’t stop because he was still shooting everyone next to me.”

Francisco Toledo, whose 78-year-old father Mario was killed in the shooting, told AFP he felt the gunman had been “deceived... by an evil spirit”.

“I have been asked questions: ‘What would you do if you had him here in front of you?’ I wouldn’t ask him anything, I would tell him to repent,” he said.

President Joe Biden vowed to keep fighting “the epidemic of gun violence”.

Last week, he signed the first significant federal bill on gun safety in decades, just days after the Supreme Court ruled that Americans have a fundamental right to carry a handgun in public.

PAMPLONA, Spain — A red-and-white sea of revellers erupted in celebration on Wednesday, dousing each other with wine in a packed Pamplona square as Spain’s most famous bull-running festival returned after a two-year absence due to the pandemic.

The launch of a firecracker known as the “chupinazo” from the balcony of the northern city’s town hall at noon (10:00 GMT) marked the official start of the nine-day San Fermin fiesta, kicking off the bedlam.

Thousands of party-goers from around the world — most dressed in the traditional all-white outfit with a red scarf — responded ecstatically, screaming “Viva San Fermin!” and spraying each other with wine.

Despite a light rain falling, the throng cheered wildly as they waved their red scarves in the air and passed giant yellow inflatable balls over their heads as scores looked on from crowded apartment balconies.

“The rain doesn’t matter. Seeing the square full again is terrific,” said Saioa Guembe Pena, 54-year-old civil servant whose white shirt was stained pink with wine.

The annual festival, made famous by Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel “The Sun Also Rises”, was last held in 2019.

Local officials called off the hugely popular event in 2020 and the following year because of the COVID-19 pandemic — the first time the festival was cancelled since Spain’s civil war in the 1930s.

Many revellers started drinking early, sitting at outdoor patios or wandering Pamplona’s narrow, cobbled streets with large bottles of sangria hours before the “chupinazo”.

The festival, which dates back to medieval times, features concerts, religious processions, folk dancing and round-the-clock drinking.

But the highlight is the bracing daily test of courage against a thundering pack of half-tonne, sharp-horned bulls.

Every day at 8:00 am, hundreds of daredevils race with six fighting bulls along an 850-metre course from a holding pen to Pamplona’s bull ring, which this year marks its 100th anniversary.

The bravest — or most foolhardy — run as close as possible to the bulls’ horns, preferably without being gored.

The first bull run, which traditionally draws the largest number of participants, is on Thursday.

Dozens of people are hurt every year, although most injuries are caused by runners falling or being trampled by the bulls.

The last death was in 2009 when a bull gored a 27-year-old Spaniard in the neck, heart and lungs.